Shakespeare's sonnets
Collection of 154 sonnets by William Shakespeare first published in 1609. The collection ends with the narrative poem "A Lover's Complaint". While the first 17 sonnets of the collection are dealing with the topic of procreation and are addressed to a young man, and sonnets 18-126 are dealing with the writer's love to the young man, the last sequence (sonnets 127-154) is dedicated to the Dark Lady. Due to its internal separation of addressees, the collection highly differs from other sonnet sequences making use of traditional Petrarchan features such as the sequences of Edmund Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney.
Whereas the traditional concepts of Elizabethan (love) sonnets dealt with courtly love in the manner of Petrarch, Shakespeare changed some fundamental aspects such as addressing a young man and his beauty as well as contradicting the Petrarchan sonnet tradition with the sexually oriented sonnets about the Dark Lady. The sonnet collection is considered to be the end of a long sonnet tradition, particularly regarding the English and Elizabethan love sonnet.
Structure and style
Shakespeare makes use of Surrey's sonnet form with an abab cdcd efef gg rhyme scheme. Its metrical structure is iambic pentameter.
The sonnets usually consist of two quartrains which emerge in a thematical octave, followed by a cesura in thought, a quartrain and a final rhyming couplet. Exceptions are sonnets 126 (which consists of rhyming couplets) and 145 (which makes use of 4 feet in one line instead of 5). The couplet is often set against the previous thoughts or else it is used for emphasis - it serves as a new form bringing reversal, new ideas or a conclusion.
Though the sonnet collection seems to follow a certain chronology of sonnets, on closer consideration it is obvious that there are some irregularities. Thus, sonnets 76-86 deal with the poet's rival concerning the Fair Lord's love, but apparently sonnet 77 and sonnet 81 seem to be out of place. So, sonnet 81 offers itself to be a thematic and linguistic counterpart to sonnet 32 which itself functions as a thematically and linguistically foreign matter in its series of sonnets 29-35. According to that it is doubtful that Shakespeare's sonnets were written in the more or less precise order they appear in the collection.
Shakespeare highly uses metaphors, symbols and conceits, and besides symbols of nature and love makes use of vocabulary of law, finances, medicine and so on.
Sonnets 1-126: Fair Lord sequence
Sonnets 1-126 are addressed to an unnamed young man, referred to as “Fair Lord”. Here the poet expresses his love and admiration for the Fair Lord, praising his beauty, while later on having an affair with the Dark Lady.
In the sonnets, the Fair Lord stands for an idealised platonic love. It differs from the Petrarchan ideal since the poet addresses a young man instead of a traditional inapproachable Sonnet Lady. The Fair Lord is praised for his beauty, which was usually considered to be a female feature. Scholars tend to ascribe the poet's admiration towards a man as a hint to Shakespeare's supposed homosexuality. Indeed, the admiration could also refer to Neo-Platonic ideals, in which real love without sexual lust (as chastity is one of the ideals of the Petrarchan Sonnet Lady) is possible between men only. This ideal however is highly platonic.
Furthermore, the Fair Lord contradicts the Petrarchan ideal by being depicted as a human being. Though he is praised for his beauty, he is not wholly idealised by being criticised for being selfish and doing hurtful things to the poet (sonnet 94) such as having another friend – the Rival Poet which appears in sonnets 78-86.
Sonnets 1-17 build a sequence called “procreation sonnets”. A change of tone is given with sonnet 18, which moves expressed urge to marry to the announcement that the poet's Fair Lord will be immortalised in his verses. It is clear move to romantic intimacy, which continues in the following sonnets that depict the ups and downs of the relationship between the poet and the Fair Lord.